mattp22

Hi Everyone, any recommendations for a piling foundation contractor for a site near Oban? Thanks

Thanks for clarifying, much appreciated

Hi, about 20 metres

Hi, just jumping on the band wagon here. I also have exactly same scenario with meter box at edge of my plot but with 100amp fuse in cut-out, no meter (yet) Did anyone have any luck working out size/guage of cable to run from cut-out into house? I'm glad this is an accepted method rather than having to move the whole fuse into new house when it's finished. Thanks

lol, i hadnt realised- i am speaking with SipsEco just now. Sorry for typo. Seems EcoSips are based 20 minutes away from them- confusing! Must be a story there... I've got Kore at about 60% of Isoquick cost but excluding installation. I will be remote managing so thought supply & fit might be less of a headache.

I'll check out Ecology again but i couldnt find any standard % rates on their site, presumably because they don't deal with standard builds, but any more than 0.75% points more on mortgage would push the numbers in masonry's favour for me. Bonkers in 2020, but that's mortgage lenders for you. For what its worth i've been advised renderboard over the SIPs would satisfy many high street lenders and therefore get you the lower interest rates. SIPECO is the way I am going too, with Isoquick slab (i think). Isoquick were £6-8k depending upon insulation level but that's for SIP/timber only build. I hadnt realised adding masonry would bump the cost up so much so i might revisit Kore and ask my ground works crew to install to lower costs (although they have not done an insulated slab before, so that should be fun!) Good to know that ECOSIPS are getting their BBA cert so soon- they just told me it was in progress. That's cool you're pulling the trigger in 2 weeks, when are you hoping to start founds and SIPs? Are ECOSIPS doing SIP install too?

SIP is 169mm, 0.2 w/M2. I understand with blockwork and cavity this will drop to around 0.16 w/M2. We were going to increase panel thickness/ insulation anyway which added £2k to SIP cost, but no need now that we're adding blockwork- so the £2k can be taken off blockwork cost i guess. good point about protection in a storm, it's not like we're 10 metres from the Atlantic, oh.. no.. wait minute...

thanks, and it is something we looked at, but not quite the style we're after. PP is for larch cladding too.

not sure i've got an option unfortunately if comments from lenders are to believed. i've not costed for the blockwork accurately yet but have estimated £6k inc. labour for 160 sq mtrs (based on several online calculators). In terms of mortgage savings- around 2% rate from highstreet lender should be possible given location, non-trad construction and loan to value. Specialist lender who would accept SIP + cladding with no masonry would be 3% if lucky but closer to 4% in reality, and construction type would deter re-sale if i ever had to move. Over 5 years that would cost me an extra £8k @ 3% or £16k @ 4% in repayments so makes sense to go for blockwork now even if it is hugely frustrating and unnecessary. Broker i've used for several mortgages and she has really done a lot of leg work on this construction method for me.

very nice- that's what we wanted but Planners not up for it. Where did you get it from if you don't mind me asking? I'll check out Dupont- thanks

thanks for link, that sounds ideal

i think with rendered block outer skin you should be fine with highstreet lender and thus lower % rate. My mortgage broker has spoken to about 20 lenders and it seems with masonry element then about half are happy with SIP construction. Timber cladding on masonry reduces pool further though but that's the look we want (and Planners!) Last time i spoke to Protek they wanted £5k for my warranty but that was without masonry element, timber only construction. Hopefully they'll reduce it a bit now. Was your SIP kit BBA approved if you don't mind me asking? I am probably using a company in Fife for kit but they are not BBA approved (yet) and i'm a bit wary of consequences.

Thanks for your comments. Construction will be 160mm SIP kit, membrane, 50mm cavity, 100mm lightweight block, something black, 18mm batons then 22mm horizontal larch . That link to Proctor Group is great- i've been looking for weeks and hadn't found anything but that product sounds good. Paint flaking was a concern for me too. Ideally larch will be nailed on to batons so yes would be impratical to remove every 5-10 years to paint the blockwork. I had considered corrugated black steel on to blockwork then batons then larch, but i think the mortgage lender will get spooked with use of larch + steel sheet. I could use the Proctor membrane on top of corrugated panel to conceal it i suppose and lender will be none the wiser. Proctor membrane straight on to masonry sounds like the way to go, using black batons to secure membrane down, but Proctor data sheet says 5000 hours UV tested which is only 208 days direct sun. Obviously UV resistance not applicable at night time, and the gaps between larch only 18mm so gap for UV to penetrate is small and position of sun will make angle of 'attack' tight, but still doesnt sound like the Proctor product will be much better than 5-10 years expectancy like paint option. I'll email them to ask rather than blethering here! black bricks are nice- but too expensive unfortunately to then be covered by larch

Hi, I'm building a house in Scotland using SIP construction for insulation quality, airtightness and speed of build. Plan is to clad in larch externally like image below. But speaking to several mortgage companies who will take on the long term mortgage (after self-build mortgage finishes in 9 months) it seems most are very wary of SIP construction with only timber cladding. A couple of highstreet lenders have said it's a 'possibility' (halifax and santanter) but most want masonry external skin. If i go to non-highstreet lender who are more understanding of purely timber SIP build the interest rate seems to be more like 4% rather than 2% so it makes a major difference to mortgage payments. I've therefore decided (just to satisfy mortgage lender) to add a middle skin of lightweight concrete block between SIP frame and larch cladding. My question is do you think the concrete block can be left painted black behind the larch, or will i need a more substantial finish on the concrete block because the larch installation has such large gaps (15/20mm spacing). I don't want to have issues with moisture travelling through the masonry and condensing on the SIP or at soleplate. Very frustrating to have to add the totally unnecessary masonry but over 5 years i calculate mortgage saving will be around £10k and i think block cost will be around £5k. Thanks.

not personally, but neighbouring plot has very good pressure and is higher up than me. i need to go and check actual flow rate- 6 hour round trip though consensus seems to be that boiler stove will over-complicate the plan so UVC looks like best route (unless flow rate is disastrously low!)

yes that is what i thought too, so i would always have 500L main cylinder with potential 500L backup when required. A UVC manufacturer sent me this diagram today though for parallel connection- i read from this i would need all 3 cylinders to be heated at same time to same temperature to balance my hot water feed? If one cylinder is cold the cold will feed into the main DHW pipe and lower the temperature of everything?

can i ask a question please (if you know the answer) comparing TS & UVC... if i am heating water on E7 tariff for instance- 7 hours at night on 3kw immerser- would i get the same volume of usable hot water from the 1000L TS as i would from a 500L UVC, or would extra volume of the TS 'dilute' the hot water in the TS and the overall water temperature in TS would be lower than UVC? My understanding is all hot water moves to the top of the TS or UVC but i've heard you get less usable water from a TS and I am wondering why. Thanks for tip on telford/ OSO too

There will be times when i have a full house of guests and we're leaving early in morning to go hill walking etc so i would anticipate at times 8 showers in the morning, all within a short time frame, plus more showers when we get back to the house in the afternoon. But other times there will just be 2 or 4 of us in the house. And to complicate things further, the house will be empty for some of the week/ a couple of weeks if we have to return to Glasgow for work etc. Several showers in quick succession was part of the reason i though wood stove + TS would work as the re-heat time would be very quick compared to E7 or E10 tariff, but that was before i started looking seriously at ASHP.

i would defo go for a 500 litre tank now, but i need to have enough water for potentially 8 showers a day, all with high flow rate, so i'm just not sure 500L will be sufficient. If i can daisy chain another UVC though then that would allow me to upgrade in future (and stop getting my knickers in a twist just now.) The guy i spoke to at OSO said i might need 3x300 litres UVC capacity, but i think until bathrooms are in and house being used i will not know for certain how much DHW is being used/ replenished quickly enough to cope. I'll speak to Trevor- thanks

lol, yes, i am a cheapskate, how could you tell i will start looking more into ASHP- they are less expensive than i thought actually- Daikin seem to get a decent name on here and a 5kw can be bought for about £2k without too much searching. I'd better start reading up how to fit them DIY though! Maybe see what deals can be found on good old Ebay too perhaps. One of the reasons i was against UVC was most manufacturers seem to be 300 litres max, but having a 500L option certainly puts a tick in the UVC column. Do you happen to know- if i wanted more DHW storage at a later date could I add on another cylinder without too much trouble? Thanks

Thanks @ProDave for comments. I had looked at Solar PV (albeit around the £4k mark) and ASHP but the payback time seemed very long compared to just using E7 tariff and accepting the larger electricity bills- like 10 or 15 years, however maths was never my strong point- I'd be delighted to hear otherwise. I've spoken to OSO about their cylinders as I had read they have low heat loss, and they recommended multiple cylinders as you said- 3x300L which seems an awful lot, although budget wise still less than 1x Sunamp Uniq 12. I'm still wondering about utilising the wood burner stove though and TS- if stove is not connected to hot water system then all that heat is lost. Seems sensible to try and capture some of the heat for hot water. I've found a external air boiler stove 2kw to room and 8kw to water. Does anyone else use a WBS to heat a bit of hot water? How much water could i expect (real life scenario) to heat if i had it lit for say 5 hours day? I found a calculator online which implied if i used all 8kw from the stove for 5 hours (heating water from 10 to 65 degrees C) then i would heat 625 litres! that would really help reduce the E7 bill!

Hi Everyone, I've been reading the forum for a few weeks now- it's a great place for information and help, and very comforting so many people are going through the same level of head scratching i am currently experiencing! I am building a house on west coast of Scotland near Oban- SIP build with concrete block skin, then larch cladding, insulated foundation slab, 3G windows. Only have electricity on site, no gas. With SIPs I am hoping the house will have good insulation and air tightness values so heating requirements will be minimal. Bedrooms and bathrooms to have basic electric panel heaters/ towel rads as i'm not expecting needing to heat them much. Open plan living room and kitchen (approx 50 m/2) to have wet UFH. MVHR throughout. Wood burner in living room. I am going in circles with how to supply sufficient hot water though.There will be 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms (2 shower baths, 2 just showers) and i am expecting to have a lot of visitors so potentially 8+ showers/ baths per day on a regular basis. One shower could be electric, but that leaves me with maybe 6 other showers/ baths to deal with on a daily basis when visitors come. High output drencher showers circa 15-20L/min (although i have no idea what my water pressure is yet- private supply coming off an 80,000 litre storage tank for whole village so i think it will be decent). My initial plan (which i was originally pretty chuffed about devising myself ) was to use boiler wood burner and E7 immerser to heat hot water via thermal store (circa 1000 litres). Could also heat UFH too from bottom of TS, and I could install the TS myself. But seems I got ahead of myself- well insulated houses overheat with wood burners, TS have high heat loss apparently and the hot water provision tails off dramatically as water is used I've read. Now I feel like a scolded school kid! And the small matter of 1000L TS not fitting through the door too I suppose Sunamp- i read all the main 20+ forum pages and they appear problematic with electric only option. Plus are expensive. Plus seem like witchcraft. And I don't think they can do UFH. And the big one weighs the same as a highland coo. So I am left with unvented cylinder heated directly via E7. But for 6+ daily showers/baths i would need something pretty huge, maybe even two UVCs, and professional installation. Not the end of the world space or purchase cost wise, but I am concerned about cost of heating water solely via E7 immerser (and potentially standard tariff if E7 hours don't suffice). I would also need to use a dedicated electric boiler just for UFH needs but hopefully I won't need it much. So do I hook up some renewable sources to lower my electricity costs and increase SAP value? 4kw PV on roof to help during the day, E7 takes over at night. But my roof is a) east/west and b) in not so sunny Scotland. Maybe £4k cost if I can do most of install myself. Or ASHP to boost water temp to around 40 degrees then E7 increase to circa 60 degress at night. But cost for 5kw system ASHP seems to be £6-8k. Or is cost of renewable technology installation (and running costs for ASHP) greater than cost of just using mains electricity and swallowing high monthly bills? So many questions.... my head is scrambled! Anyone else using electric only with/without renewables. Or do I go for cold showers only then guests won't overstay their welcome??

Hi, I'm in Bonawe- loch side plot. Plot came with PP but I want to alter design- Planners have been receptive so far. Where are you based and what are you building? I hope to start spring 2021.

Hi Everyone, I'm Matt. I've bought a plot of land near Oban in Scotland. Planning on doing a SIP build with passive foundation.